Friday, 14 December 2012

Well over 100,000 to lose Motability vehicles under draconian new rules

When I blogged on this topic back in January, I predicted thousands of disabled people would lose their Motability vehicles under the Government’s draft criteria for Personal Independence Payment (PIP), set to replace Disability Living Allowance (DLA) under the Welfare Reform Act. Yesterday, the Government published the final version of the criteria and the reality is far, far worse than we could have imagined.

Many consultation responses on the draft criteria complained that the descriptors for Activity 12 (Activity 11 in the draft), addressing physical difficulties in moving around, were unclear and confusing. We hoped they would be clarified; in particular, we expected clarification that being unable to walk more than 50 metres would qualify claimants for the enhanced mobility component and the Motability scheme. But we’re stunned by the decision that to qualify for Motability, a claimant needs to be unable to walk more than 20 metres – a far shorter distance.

This has massive repercussions for the majority of Motability customers who, whilst they might be able to walk 20 metres, do nonetheless have very significant difficulties getting around. Under the second draft criteria, published in January, DWP predicted that 27% fewer working age people would be eligible for the scheme once PIP was fully rolled out. It is now clear from the Government’s own figures that 42% fewer disabled people of working age will be eligible for the Motability scheme once PIP is fully rolled out than would have been eligible had DLA continued unchanged (see Personal Independence Payment: Reassessment and Impacts, published 13 December 2012).

So what will this mean for disabled people? Only those with the greatest difficulty getting around, mainly those who use a wheelchair most of the time, will qualify for the Motability scheme on grounds of physical impairment. Huge numbers of disabled people with serious musculo-skeletal conditions, serious heart conditions or respiratory difficulties, cerebral palsy, neurological conditions such as MS and ME and many, many more will no longer benefit from the scheme. Their car will simply be taken away before they have a chance to appeal.

Those who no longer qualify for Motability are likely to be unable to get to work, attend medical appointments, visit friends, go shopping or, indeed, have much of a life at all. More than a hundred thousand people, who were previously able to get out and about independently, will find themselves staring at four walls; they will need more support for essential journeys, such as medical appointments, and their quality of life will be decimated. When visiting a small supermarket, 20 metres doesn’t even get you from the parking space to the entrance, never mind around the supermarket. In fact, lots of people have to walk more than 20 metres from their car to their front door when they get home again!

Disabled people who live in rural areas will be hurt the most. What little public transport is available is less likely to be accessible. There may be no local shops, no GP or pharmacy nearby; asking for a lift to the GP means asking someone to commit a considerable part of their day to drive a considerable distance.

Then there’s the knock-on effect on the UK car industry and the wider economy. In our report, Reversing from Recovery, published in June this year, the Spartacus network used the DWP’s own projections under the draft criteria to demonstrate the knock-on effect on the car industry and wider economy once all DLA claimants of working age had been migrated to PIP. However, under the DWP’s revised projections of the number of claimants eligible for Motability, under the final PIP criteria, the effect on the car industry and economy will be much more serious:

the car industry could lose nearly 50,000 new car sales a year (we predicted a loss of 31,450 sales under earlier projections),

more than 5,500 jobs could be lost from the economy (we predicted a loss of just over 3,500 jobs under earlier projections)

the Treasury could lose £126 million in tax receipts from motor-related industries (we predicted a loss of £79 million under earlier projections),

as a result of fewer claimants using the Motability scheme by the time PIP has been fully rolled out. And of course, if disabled people lose their jobs because they can no longer get to work, they will claim more in benefits and pay less tax. All in all, the original estimate of the effect on the economy was bad enough, but these figures are far worse.

For some, there is one slight cause for encouragement: the Government has listened to concerns about the speed of implementation and the necessity for evaluation and revised its timetable. DLA claimants with indefinite awards will only start to be reassessed from October 2015 – but newer claimants are more likely to have been given time-limited awards and therefore won’t benefit. And without extra assurances from either side of the political divide, we have to assume that the criteria published today will eventually affect all DLA claimants, albeit with implementation taking place over a longer timetable.

Hundreds of thousands of disabled people whose cars are vital to their life and health stand to lose virtually everything. No car = no independence, no job, no salary (with a consequent risk of homelessness), no social life plus increased dependence on family members, health and social care services and other benefits to survive. This begs the question: how does this cut help disabled people to fulfill the social contract of being part of society and contributing by work, volunteering or being part of their community? Even those held up by the Minister for Disabled People, Esther McVey, as inspirational role models will have their lives cruelly and unnecessarily restricted.

The Government has clearly paid little heed to the impact of this ‘reform’ on disabled people’s human rights. There is no doubt that the PIP criteria for people with a physical difficulty in getting around is retrogressive under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, ratified by the UK in 2009. The proposals seriously compromise disabled people’s human rights under several Articles of the Convention, including, among others, the right to live independently and to be included in the community (Article 19), and the right to personal mobility, specifically to….’ personal mobility with the greatest possible independence’ (Article 20).

This attack on the lives of disabled people who have difficulty getting around is NOT a price worth paying. MPs on both sides of the House of Commons should vote these regulations down. The Government can, and must, do much better than this, if it really wants to build on the legacy of the Paralympics.

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* To get the enhanced mobility component of PIP, you need to accrue 12 points from either the first or second mobility activity in Part 3 of Schedule 1 of the PIP regulations. The first activity (Activity 11 in other DWP documents) covers non-physical difficulties with planning or following a journey and the second activity (Activity 12 in other DWP documents) covers physical difficulties in getting around. To get 12 points from the second activity alone, you have to be unable to stand then move more than 20 metres. If you have no difficulties with planning or following a journey and you can walk more than 20 metres, you will not be awarded the enhanced mobility component and you will not be eligible for the Motability scheme.

17 comments:

I doubt I would get Mobility even being Paraplegic, although my wife has to catheterize me, I would get what is it twelve points for that, then you have the washing I cannot wash myself at all, not sure what that gives me I think 12. And I cannot walk 50mtrs but can walk 20 with crutches or a wheelchair so I should have 34 points if that's what they intend doing.

Of course Brown wanted to end DLA altogether but that's because he was a silly bloke who now runs around the world trying to sink the banks.

But we have been here before of course with DLA when it first came in, many people were worried they not get it and they were right, until we found out the criteria for claiming.

But in the end we all knew this was coming we wanted equality well now we have it.

Are disabled people not allowed to buy cars then? This article seems to dictate that once these 100,000 people have lost their cars, they will be stranded and destitute; never again allowed to drive a car. I get HRM and I don't even use Motability.

i have m/e and i have been suffering badly with it for the past 3 years. i just wish that twat david baboon cameron could have what i and thousands more have for a week go through all the forms,medicals just to see the look on his smug face.i am not inciting any kind of violence but i do think its time for all the hard working men,women and anybody else to take back this country once and for all after all it is our bloody country not the european comunity.we all need to stick together and shove that pompous twat of a tory in the thames because he is ruining this good country right under our noses time to fight back i think and show him he cant and wont do wot he wants with our queens country, yous kindly LEE BLOODY EDWARDS.

I have recently been diagnosed with emphysema so I have had to ask DLA to loo at my claim, on certain days my breathing is better than others! I also have other disabilities which means I should be able to get the highest rate's for care and mobility,& also be given a lifetime award!!Seeing as om just dying slowly, under this new hair brain scheme I'll probably get nothing at all, even if I've been given a lifetime award of DLA.

i think its a liberty my wife has a power chair to get around and most public transport in my area wont allow her chair on a bus which means to go shopping we have to either get a cab which would cost in total 20 pounds or travel in her power chair to the nearest tesco which is 2 mile a 4 mile trip in total which means we can only get a certain amount of shopping with me going to the local convenience store and paying an arm and a leg for items that cannot be bought home from our local tesco store

Adam, Many people rely on their HRM to buy a vehicle whether or not they use mobility cars. It's tthe loss of the HRM that's the problem not the loss of the car. People WILL l be stranded, they won't have the money for any kind of car or like me the money to use taxis when they need them . If lose mine i will be effectively housebound . I also use my mobility to pay delivery cha rges ....as it's still transport that serves me. i hope you will still be able to afford a car if you lose your mobility. I wonlt !

Hello AdamIm a 66 year old on DLA and cyrrently the PIP doesnt affect me however that said at the nd of my lease the car has to go back, you used to be able to buy the car but now its stopped I think! Im not 100% sure but the best people to contact are Motability they will give you a reply to your question

What this means is disabled people will loose the benefit which enables them to be able to afford to buy or lease a car. If they are out of work, as many are, how can they possibly look for work, or attend hospital appointments if the bus stop is more that 20 metres from where they live?? The mobility component of DLA can be used towards buying, leasing and running a car or using taxis whichever is best for the individual. To many people a car is a luxury to many disable people its a necessary lifeline.

For, I suspect, the majority of these 100,000 people this may well be the case. It certainly would be for me. Adam uses the words 'stranded & destitute.' Living rurally, I would be stuck indoors without transport, or the means of buying a car. If the prospect of the widely condemned Work Capacity Assessment (WCA) was not enough to make me feel suicidal, this is. I suspect the only thing that may keep me going in the nightmare of my probable future is the thought that the Govmnt would benefit financially.

Good for you! Quite alot of us simply dont have the funds to purchase a decent reliable car! After paying to keep a roof over our heads.i have no idea at all what will become of my life once this happens.. It wont be worth fighting for..